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Earlier this year, GM admitted it was getting creamed on the coasts; the General promised to launch major marketing efforts to reclaim major metropolitan areas. Other than Chevy's recent tie-in with Rolling Stone magazine, we've seen little of what could be called bi-coastalistic marketing. Meanwhile, Toyota continues to target their new full-size Tundra pickup at the American heartland. Tomorrow, visitors to Minot's North Dakota State Fairgrounds will get a chance to put the Texas-built pickup through its paces as part of Toyoya's "Tundra, Prove it!" campaign. The high touch experience includes a limited slip diff demo, an "acceleration run" and a "braking zone" test with and without load. GM would be well-advised to watch its back.
15 Comments on “Toyota Tundra. Fair enough?...”
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Here’s what GM needs to do. Buy over 7,500 Tundras and put them inside their bloated dealer network’s showrooms. There GM consumers can look at the competition side-by-side (GM can do a huge PR blitz about how they’ll stand up to it) and 7,500 Tundras cannot be bought by former Chevy owners.
This is just another vignette in the continuing tragedy that is GM, just like the flag waving "This is our country" nonsense. The Camry began life in 1983 as a gawky and rather utilitarian vehicle which did not really meet the then-current market needs as a mid-size family car. For all of its reliability, it remained a Japanese version of a small sedan and did not seriously threaten the cars which both GM and Ford were selling at the time. With each iteration, however, Toyota carefully responded in modifications to their product and today the Camry is, while bland, the apparent definition of what Americans want in a mid-size automobile. Instead of responding with similar persistence in product refinement, GM and Ford both put their money into quick-fix truck profits (based on 1970's-designs) and apparently believed they could simply market their way around the growing Camry sales. We're watching the same thing happen again in the truck market, and now neither GM or Ford have the disposable funds to put into product development. The continued state of denial that people actually will buy better products remains firmly seated at GM Headquarters and they're getting "creamed" as a result. There is nothing magical going on at Toyota. They are willing to listen to consumers and respond with products which better meet market needs than the Detroit-based manufacturers.
Focused.
Relentless.
Persistent.
Big 3: None of the above.
Honda and Toyota: All of the above.
Results: Predictable are they.
The Tundra is capable, but don’t discount the Chevy’s. There’s a of the the Tundra, F-150, and Silverado at Fords training ground, and the Tundra’s bed is frightening. Also, you can’t forget about their reliability issues with the engine cams.
I don’t think you can say that Detroits attitude towards trucks mirrors their earlier approach to cars. Part of the problem was their small cars equals small profits attitude. Conversely they know all about big truck profits so thy will not go down without a fight. I am glad that Toyota is sticking it to Detroit as the former big three totally deserve their current plight
One note about the video, the Silverado was a z71, making the comparison a tad biased against it (the Ford wasn’t an FX4).
Methinks Tundra sales will overtake Dodge Ram this month…..
For a counterpoint to the folks that are championing the new Tundra, you may wish to read this piece – go HERE.
It is certainly a provocative viewpoint.
But in a more general vein, this is a different time and a different segment than when the Japanese took over the passenger car market – I think GM will contest the full-size truck market vigorously. It should be quite a fight.
B Moore – Autosavant.net
I had some sort of GM truck since 1970, sold the last one a couple of years ago. If I were in the market for a truck I would still consider the GM but most likely buy the Toyota.
Shantanu, I’d like to see the same comparison with the beds full of stuff. An empty bed comparison isn’t the most practical, and you can see the Tundra’s cab in that comparo remained quite stable and the driver looked comfortable.
As for the camshaft issue on the 5.7L …
Brendan Moore, that counterpoint is flawed. So far, only a handful of engines have actually *had* the camshafts fail. Toyota is looking at 30,000 5.7L engines because that is every 5.7L produced so far. It just shows how obssessive Toyota is in solving this problem. It’s guaranteed that Toyota won’t have to replace thousands of engines. The problem stems from a supplier outside of Toyota, but luckily Toyota caught the problem very quickly.
Even if GM has a vigorous will to fight in the truck market, just like Ford, they simply might not have the means (R & D money and resources) to be able to go toe-to-toe with Toyota. Compared with the old 1st generation Tundra, this new Tundra is a huge leap forward. GM’s new trucks are only a small leap forward compared with their old GMT-800 trucks. And GM’s GMT-900 trucks were being developed before all the huge losses started to occur. As for Ford, it seems so far that the 2009 F150 won’t be a big competitive leap that Ford fans were hoping for.
And seeing as Toyota will show off a Tundra diesel dually HD concept at SEMA this year, things are only going to get worse for the competition. HD trucks are the most profitable products in the full-size truck segment, and it looks like Toyota will be going all-out in that part of the segment too.
Johnson, the big leap you talk about is because the toyota product wasn’t up to scratch and could only get better….significantly. GMs product was already good, if not the best in the market so any improvement would be subtle, kinda like with toyotas tinkering with each generation of camry etc.
This is news? Toyota is advertising the Tundra. A more interesting article would have a compare and contrast with the Ford v. Honda/ToMoCo and Saturn v. Honda/ToMoCo head to heads with the Toyota v. Ford/Chevy head to head. Along with some sort of polling to suggest how many people have actually been swayed by the different ad campaigns.
What makes me laugh the most is the tone of so many comments on this – they act as though the Big 3 have let their trucks go to crap, as they did their cars. Is the Tundra REALLY head and shoulders above Ford or Chevy across the board? No. Being a Chevy guy, it pains me to say this, but the new Tundra is a totally competitive full size pickup truck. I personally don’t like the looks or the design of the interior, or the size for that matter (I recently downsized from a Silvy to a Colorado, and have yet to miss the larger payload cap, towing, or worse fuel economy)… but the Tundra is a solid full size entry. Is there anyone here, that honestly, in a side by side test, says that the Tundra “creams” the Silverado or F150? Has Megan Benoit done a review of the Tundra yet? She has by far the most scathing critiques I’ve ever read (if you can find some which give less slack, please let me know) and I’d like to hear what she has to say about the new Tundra.
And as far as ToMoCo having the R&D to make the next Tundra better, yes, they do. But how much are they willing to invest in what everyone is sure is a dying market segment? With fuel prices at $3/gal and looking to hang out there for a while, is that really where the best investment in future product development lies? I’m relatively sure that if GM came out today and said “We’re going to drop $5 billion into the next truck platform,” it would be the next session of GM Deathwatch.
I find it endlessly hilarious that Toyota picked the exact displacement of 5.7L for their engine. Let’s see, does anyone else make a 5.7…oh yes Chevy has for about the last 50 years, and it’s the most versatile, and reliable small block V8 in the world. I guess imitation is flattery.
A more interesting article would have a compare and contrast with the Ford v. Honda/ToMoCo and Saturn v. Honda/ToMoCo head to heads with the Toyota v. Ford/Chevy head to head.
This isn’t a vehicle review, it’s a news blog item about TMC’s marketing campaign.
The subtext of the story here is that Toyota is on its path to take down the Big 2.8’s last remaining segment. It’s just a more aggressive version of the same strategy that Toyota used in its conquest of the mainstream car segments. Being how badly GM, Ford and Chrysler have done in competing with them in the other segments, the question is: Why would this one be any different?
The Tundra has had a tough go at it so far, but I believe that in time, it will help to put the nail in GM’s coffin. Toyota may do to GM what Reagan did to the Soviet Union with the arms race — force GM to spend so much money trying to compete that they ultimately bury themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if Toyota owns a large piece of the US truck in ten years’ time.
jp3209, dying segment or not, it will eventually level off because there will ALWAYS be people who need trucks for work and to make a living. The segment will also remain quite profitable. I look forward to GM making a statement that they will commit billions to their next-gen trucks. Considering they don’t have the cash to do it, and considering Toyota will likely outmuscle them in terms of R & D for the next-gen Tundra, it will be a bit silly really.
Steve_K, that’s a ridiculous notion. Did you ever think that perhaps there is a *good* engineering reason for choosing a displacement of 5.7L? You can’t “copy” a displacement. That’s like saying Ford “copied” Nissan and Toyota with their 3.5L Duratec.
Copying or imitating a displacement is like saying you’re imitating the number 6.